Honey Flowers // Beige Autumnal Flower Design

Another look that came about whilst swatching the Nails Inc Nail Spice collection! This was a super quick one. Just 2 layers of Honey Lane, followed by designs stamped on with Smokey and Bright Lights, then a layer of smudge proof top coat and matte top coat.

Polishes/Tools Used:

Base:

- Nails Inc // Honey Lane (pink beige)

Stamping:

- Twinkled T // Smokey (dark grey)

- Barry M Liquid Chrome // Bright Lights (gold)

- MoYou London // Botanical 16 Stamping Plate

Top:

- MoYou London // Smudge Proof Top Coat

- Barry M // Matte Top Coat

Cosy Plaid // Beige Autumn Plaid Look

This came about whilst I was swatching the Nails Inc Nails Spice Set. It doesn't get much more autumnal pumpkin spice vibes than these 4 shades and I thought they'd be perfect for a scarf look.

These stamp better than I thought they would!

Polishes/Tools Used:

Base:

- Nails Inc // Pudding Lane (off white)

Stamping:

- Nails Inc // Bread Street (pale mauve), Honey Lane (beige), Nutmeg Lane (terracotta)

- MoYou London // Trend Hunter 27 Stamping Plate

Top:

- MoYou London // Smudge Free Top Coat

Autumn Lane // Nude Beige Autumn Nails

This came about whilst I was swatching the Nails Inc Nail Spice collection. I wanted to see how well the darkest shade could stamp and I think it turned out quite well.

I started off with 2 coats of Honey Lane, then dry brushed on some Pudding Lane and Bread Street for contrast. I used Nutmeg Lane for the base stamps and then used the L'or to bring some shine in via the gold before sticking a matte top coat on top.

This was a pretty quick look and quite effective! It feels like witchy vibes but make it pumpkin spice.

Polishes/Tools Used:

Base:

- Nails Inc // 

Honey Lane (dusty peach), 

Pudding Lane (pale pink), 

Bread Street (dusty pink),

Stamping:

- Nails Inc // Nutmeg Lane (terracotta)

- L'Oreal Color Riche // 660 L'or (gold shimmer)

- MoYou London // Fall in Love 15 Stamping Plate

Top:

- MoYou London // Smudge Free Top Coat

- Barry M // Matte Top Coat

SWATCHES: Nails Inc // Nail Spice Set

I saw this in TK Maxx for £12.99 and stayed strong however a few weeks later I was there again and caved because it's such a cute set! I'm also a sucker for ombre shades.

The Nail Spice set was released October 2021 with a retail price of £22.

Pudding Lane // Off-White Pink Taupe Creme

Coats: 2

Nails Inc have reused this name as it used to be a blue glitter polish from the early 2010's. I found this be on the streaky/runny side making it somewhat difficult to apply. I'm a big fan of off-white shades though so this will be going on my favourites shelf. 

2 coats can still be a bit streaky but it's not the end of the world.

Bread Street // Neutral Dusty Pink Creme

Coats: 2

I am in love with this polish. It's hard to imagine this looking bad on any skin tone. It's one of those perfect, autumn mauve dusty shades. Like Pudding Lane, it's quite runny with streaks making it slightly annoying to apply but all is forgiven on that second coat.

Honey Lane // Neutral Dusty Peach Creme

Coats: 2

This is an amazing shade that could be used for any time of the year. It pairs incredibly well with Bread Street. I can see all of these shades being used in a nude art deco look. This one is also a perfect match for my skin tone and would provide the best base for nude nails with neon decorations.

This one had the best formula so far, slightly thicker and less streaky.

Nutmeg Lane // Deep Terracotta Creme

Coats: 2

I like this shade however I wish it was more brown-ish and resembled actual gingerbread which has more of an orange tint to it. it was also the easiest to apply and you could get away with one coat but I did 2 just to smooth everything out. This is a proper cosy autumn shade and stamps really well. 

// Overall

This set is advertised as being "gingerbread scented" which is perfect for the autumn/winter seasons however there is no scent. To me it just smells like nail polish with a slight sweetener aroma somewhere. 

On the box it says you should fill in your thumb and pinkie with Pudding Lane, Bread Street to your index, Honey Lane on the middle and Nutmeg Lane on the ring finger for "on trend ombre look". So that's what I did:

I think the shades tonally match each other well and you can create some fantastic nail art however this set should have a 5th dark brown shade to complete it. 

Nails Inc // Nail Spice Set // £22

Match That Mani // Strange Bird Cleanser

This look came about when I was in the shower one day and using my favourite cleanser. I've always loved the design on the bottle and have been wanting to do a matching look for a while.

I didn't want an all white base for this look and finally settled on Cuccio - Mystery in Milan however as I started painting I could smell the tell tale sign of formaldehyde. I managed to peel back the little on sticker on the bottom and yep, it's barely even 1 free. The shade isn't even that old. It's a shame as I like the shade and it doesn't have the black specks in it that all new Cuccio shades have but I hate the smell.

Anyway, this was a super quick look to do. Just 2 coats of Mystery in Milan followed by some lines in Cantaloupe first, then some more detailed stamps in Ghosted. I topped it off with a smudge proof top coat. 

I then added a matte top coat as I can never decide between matte or glossy. 

I'm glad I went with an off-white base though as I think the pure white would of slightly ruined the look. This way it also looks like a chic fall look as well.

Polishes & Tools:

Base:

- Cuccio // Mystery In Milan (off white)

Stamping:

- H&M // Cantaloupe (orange)

- Twinkled T // Smokey (dark grey)

- MoYou London // Artist 29 Plate

Top:

- MoYou London // Smudge Proof Top coat

- Barry M // Matte Top Coat

A Woman's Deer-ivative // Quick Nail Art Looks

 

A super quick nail art look today! This wintery/christmas feeling look came about whilst I was swatching some OPI shades and in my head I was like "this is the perfect background for the super detailed images on that Fall In Love plate I bought last year". Inspiration comes from anywhere.

I even decided to leave the horns on as I couldn't bring myself to remove them; it just looked cute if very impractical. I was going to do more stamps on each nail but I thought it would overwhelm it.

As I said, this one is super easy; just 3 coats of A Woman's Prague-ative, then I picked up the deer image with Lumberjack and filled in the image with Café au Lait. I applied a layer of quick dry top coat to the chosen nail, let it go tacky and then stamped away.

Polishes/Tools Used:

- OPI // A Woman's Prague-ative (orange shimmer)

- MoYou London // Lumberjack (brown), Café au Lait (cream)

- MoYou London Stamping Plate // Fall In Love 01

Nearly But Not Quite // November 2019 Nail Fails

It's time for some more nail fails! These three looks were done right at the start of November and I wanted to do so much last month but got hindered by the hideous looking nail. I like having short nails but that was ridiculous. Thankfully, it grew back enough in time for December because I was not missing out on snowflake and Ciaté swatching. But it meant that I didn't have much time to make it up and posts were sparse.

Autumn Falling

This wasn't supposed to be a nail fail, it was supposed to be glorious. I used watercolour paints and everything to create the burnt orange and red background. The problem happened after the stamping. The thumb used my most opaque white stamping polish and it looked pretty good. Some colour was still coming through but it wasn't obvious. I then applied the top coat and the white just turned to water and ruined the entire look. 

Winter Leaves

Now this wouldn't look so bad if it weren't for the horribly stained yellow nails shining through. I need to start wearing a base coat on top of my peel off base now as I keep getting horrible stains even when I'm only wearing polishes for an hour or two. Unfortunately I'm still growing out the stains on my ring finger so I can't recreate this just yet but it is a cute look so I might use a opaque background.

Forest Drag

What a drag. I enjoy doing drag marble looks however I chose the wrong shades for this one and there is way to much white. I'm trying to perfect that geode rock formation but it's not quite right just yet. 

STAMPING PLATES: Fall In Love Collection // MoYou London

Could MoYou London please stop releasing new collections every month because I'm trying to save for a house deposit here....At this point I've just accepted that I need to budget for new nail supplies every month. This was quite unexpected from them as well as they released a new Halloween collection as well this month (I may have bought one of those as well...) 

These plates are beautiful set for Autumn though but I kinda wish they had been released early September instead as we're heading into the end of October now and it's just raining all the time. Fall is pretty much over.

This new set has four plates all with different designs but I only bought 01 & 02 as 03 & 04 are have similar designs on many other plates that I own.  

I think 01 is definitely my favourite and the reason I put an order in the first place. I just absolutely love plates with crazy detail on them. I also think this will do nicely for Christmas looks as well with the deer and holly bushes. I added 02 'cause I'm a hoe for overprint stamping plates. It's just such an easy way to add detail to a design. 

I used a MoYou polish (Into The Woods) to stamp the designs and didn't have any problems with them picking up. Although since I've been using my new combo of Maniology Ice Cube stamper and Starbucks gift card-scraper, I've had zero problems with picking up designs. I think the Starbucks card really stops you from scraping to hard or at a harsh angle that you might with finer, dedicated scrapers.

Polishes/Tools Used:-

- Ciaté // Pretty In Putty (light beige)
- MoYou London // Heaven Sent (peach), Scandi Sun (pale sage), First Kiss (pastel pink), Into The Woods (dark brown), 

- Avon Mark. // Gel Shine Top Coat
- MoYou London Plate // Fall In Love 01, Artist 22

MoYou London 

Fall In Love Collection (£6.99 each)

Rusty Pineapple // Clay Red & White Fall Design

This rusted fall design was inspired by a mustard look I found on pinterest by @semilac. Once it was finished I think I should've stuck with the mustard shade as the white and red kind of clash. Looking back I feel I should've chosen an off-white or parchment shade for the accent nails. Also, the red and yellow combo remind me of macdonalds...not exactly what I was going for.

It's still a somewhat cute look and I'm still impressed at how well these two creme shades stamp. Guess I need to buy more H&M shades...they just brought out a new winter collection.

Polishes/Tools Used:-

- H&M // Sun on Clay (red), Cantaloupe (mustard)

- Ciaté // White Heat (white)

- Nicole Diary  // Black Knight (black)
- Barry M // Matte Top Coat
- MoYou London Plate // Botanical 01
- Maniology Plate // M051

Autumn Pink // Dusty Pink Leaf Nail Design

It's October and I planned to do lots of spooky/fall designs but I've started to realise that I tend to get bored when I'm doing prompts and I just like doing my own thing. I've had this new Nicole Diary plate lying around for a month now and it just has the cutest designs on it so I did a simple basic pink look. I also haven't used this H&M shade yet and it's perhaps my favourite shade of pink; that dusty basic pinterest pink. I'd have walls covered in this shit.

I used a Nicole Diary white stamping polish as well, and whereas it isn't the strongest white polish I've used I was surprised at how much detail was in the stamp. That said, when I used that plate/polish combo before, nothing would pick up which makes me think that the new stamper I got from Maniology really is the best stamper in the world.

I tried to add a little gold/pink detail on the leaves but missed the overlap and so it kind of looks a little odd but it's still a nice shade, even if it doesn't show up well over the pink.

Polishes/Tools Used:-

- H&M // Chalky Pink (dusty pink)
- Nicole Diary // Born Perfect (white)

- Born Pretty  // Pink Planet (gold/pink metallic)
- Barry M // Matte Top Coat
- Nicole Diary Plate // L09

SWATCHES: China Glaze // Gone West Autumn 2019 Collection

Prairie Tale Ending // Beige Creme

I love this shade, it was one of the ones I wanted the most as these beige/clay cremes are so versatile. This one needs a minimum of 2 coats but applies well and has a super shiny finish even without top coat. 

Campfired Up! // Dark Red Creme

I've never been a big fan of red polish (or red lipstick) but I really love how this is more on the deep burgandy side of red. It's also ready in one coat and I think a watermarble design with this shade and Prairie Tale Ending would be a stunning autumn look.  Also, due to it's strong pigmentation, it works perfectly as a stamping polish.

Lawless & Flawless // Pink Jelly with Gold/Pink shimmer flakes

I kinda wish this was a little bit lighter but the tiny flecks of gold and pink really make this polish special. Each and every coat just adds more depth and it kind of reminds me of Picture Polish flaky/creme polishes. When I first bought this set I though this was a creme and was kind of upset when I realised it was a shimmer but once I got it on my nails and loved it.

Take The High Rodeo // Mauve Shimmer

I think this is my least favourite out of the collection, the flakes need to be a little bit more sparse like Lawless & Flawless. it's also more of a rose shade and rose doesn't look that good with my skin tone. A second coat makes this more wearable for me but it's not something that I would reach for to wear by itself.

Cattle Drive Me Crazy // Midnight Blue Metallic

This is so deep and so rich I didn't even realise it was a metallic polish. It has zero streaks or brush strokes that many metallics are plagued by. This reminds me heavily of Ciaté's Eclipse and looks beautiful with a holo polish and plenty of top coat. Only one coat is needed from this polish and stamps well.

Buffalo Bills, Bills, Bills // Mahogany with gold shimmer

This deep brown shade glimmers with golds shimmer in the light and if it hits it just right; you get a hint a green. This is a perfect fall shade that you could wear with one coat but I prefer two.

Gold Mine Your Business // Gold Holo Shimmer

I was surprised to find splecks of holo in this polish as at first it just looks like a regular gold shade. It needs around 3 coats but instead of being a yellow gold it's a little darker and has more of a 'rusty' feeling which is really in keeping with the Gone West theme. This would be a great shade for Christmas and New Year parties.

Cowboy, Bye // Deep Purple Holo Shimmer

And we finish with my favourite shade in the collection and the reason it caught my eye in the first place. This shade is more stunning in person than the photos let on. It reminds me of the night sky in an Arizona desert; it's just beautiful and the shade in the collection you need the most. Something new pops out at every angle. I'm considering buying another bottle just for display.

// Verdict

One of the first collections I've bought in full this year but I'm a sucker for anything Wild West related and the interesting mix of creams and shimmers have made this a fantastic autumn collection. I'm not a huge fan of the China Glaze brush and general formula however these were for the most part easy to apply and none of them had that awful matte finish. I highly recommend this collection, especially Prairie Tale Ending and Cowboy, Bye. I will say though, don't trust the promotional photos as they depict the shades much lighter than they are.

China Glaze - Gone West Collection